Science, History, and a Journey to the Stars
Princess Luna was a very busy pony. Not nearly so as her sister, but for somepony who was awake usually only at night, she was busy. Many ponies had very different sleep cycles since before she was sent packing to the moon, and bat ponies had become a much larger portion of the population of the country she shared with Princess Celestia. Plus, she had to deal with most of the nightmares ponies experienced. So, quite naturally, when there came a knock at her chamber door just as she was lying down to sleep in the early morning, she wasn’t very amused.
Luna sighed and rubbed the sides of her head with her hoofs, willing the pony to go away, but of course, it didn’t. Climbing out from under her blue-and-purple quilt, she blew her mane out of her face and slowly trotted toward the door. Another several knocks resonated through the darkness. Opening the door by a few inches, she looked outward from her room. She saw nopony, so she closed the door loudly, the sharp sound of wood-against-wood echoing through the room and hallway outside.
Then, just as she turned away, there came another knock at the door, slightly less audible, as if less force had been put forth. Luna whipped around and threw the door open. “WHAT?!” She yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Down the hall, beyond the door that led to the royal chambers, a guard woke with a start. Glaring, she looked from side to side while staying within her door frame. “SHOW YOURSELF!” she demanded.
From the tile floor, there came a small, high-pitched voice. “P-princess…?” When Luna looked down, her eyes immediately softened. There, a copper-colored Earth Pony sat, her golden eyes massive and afraid on her lean face. Luna sighed again and lied down in front of the little filly, to see her face-to-face. The filly’s mane was frizzy and covered part of her face, colored with a radiant bronze-ish tinge.
“We… I am sorry for startling you." Luna spoke in a gentle tone, her voice slightly sand-papery from shouting. “It’s just later in the morning than I would prefer to be awake. What is your name?” She asked the little pony, hoping her voice had all traces of annoyance laced from it.
The filly’s legs shook underneath her as she sat down on her rump and met Luna’s gaze. “I-I’m Copper Cadence.” Then, she glanced back at her Cutie Mark, drawing Luna’s attention. It was of two music notes. One was a slightly darker copper color than that of her coat, and the other was a silver color. The silver one was slightly below the copper note, and they were both facing inward.
She focused back on Copper’s eyes. “You’re a musician?” She asked with a smile. When Copper nodded, Luna spoke again. “That’s nice. I’ve seen very few musicians since I’ve been back in Equestria. It seems that certain talents have become increasingly rare.” She stood up and beckoned for the little filly to follow her as she turned back into the room. “So for what reason have you come to see me?” Luna turned back to the filly and closed the door with her magic, much more gently than before.
Now that Copper was sure that she wasn’t going to be obliterated in a rage from the Princess, she looked up at Luna. “I wanna go up and see the moon and stars!” she said. Luna’s eyes widened in surprise. Most ponies asked her what it was like to be stuck in space, and what it was like to see the planet from that angle, but none had ever asked her to go into space.
Luna frowned, and Copper’s ears folded back, worried that she had offended her. “For what reason would you want to go to the moon and stars?” Luna asked.
“It’s so pretty from down here, so I thought it would be even prettier if I got closer. Like really nice music sounds nicer the closer you are to it!” Copper Cadence answered. Luna’s frown dissipated, but a smile didn’t take it’s place. Copper pushed on. “Can you take my up and show me them, and tell me about them?”
Luna was reminded of Twilight and her hunger for knowledge as she listened to the frizzle-maned Earth Pony. She didn’t like the thought of physically going back up to the moon while bringing a filly she barely knew with her, but it made her smile at Copper’s desire to traverse a place where very few ponies got to go. Luna began to consider taking a short trip up to the sky with the little filly.
Then, a nagging thought entered her mind. Looking back down at Copper, Luna asked, “Do your parents know you’re here with me, and did you consult with them about going into space?” Copper slowly hunched her back and pawed at the ground with one hoof, refusing to meet the princess’s gaze.
“Uh… N-no, I didn’t, Princess…” She answered timidly. Then, with a quiet “oh!” she bowed before the Princess of the Night. Luna wasn’t sure if it was because she had forgotten earlier, or just to earn brownie points with her only way to the stars.
Luna stared down at the bowing filly for nearly a full minute before the chamber echoed with her laughter. Copper Cadence slowly looked up, confusion upon her face, as the princess turned her head toward the heavens and expressed her amusement. After a few moments, Copper began to laugh with her.
As the two ponies calmed down, Luna spoke to Copper. “I’ll take you to the stars, Little One, if only for a short hour.” She turned and opened the window behind her. “But while we are out there, you must do exactly as I say. I can’t have you injured.” She said seriously.
The first thing the little Earth Pony did was cheer and hug Luna’s foreleg, repeating “thank you!” over and over again. Luna smiled, before she began to adorn a deadpan look and tried to shake Copper off. After a moment, Luna just sat down and waited for her to let go. After a moment, Copper blushed, and released the Princess.
“I promise I won’t do anything bad, Princess! I’ll be on my best behavi… Beh… Behavior!” She said enthusiastically. Then, taking a few steps back, she asked, “So what do we do now? How do we get there?”
Luna stood up to full height and drew Copper to herself with tendrils of dark-blue magic. “I will take us there now. There is no reason to stall” She answered soberly.
As Copper reached Luna, the candles in the room began to go out on their own, one by one, until the room was dark and shadows danced across the floor from the moonlight shining through the open window. They stood in this moonlight, and tendrils of silver began to dance up from the floor at their hoofs, wrapping themselves around the two ponies. “May you find what you came looking for, Copper Cadence.” Luna said tiredly, her gaze drifting to the little filly next to her. “But if you do not… Please do not be disappointed.” Then, the tendrils consumed them both, and they sunk into the floor and rose again, thousands of miles away.
~-~-~-~-~
The forms of two ponies rose from the surface of the space rock known as the moon. The desolate, crater-lidden landscape screamed grey at them as the younger, Copper Cadance looked around, golden eyes wide. “Where are we?” She asked Luna.
Luna sighed, her eyes wandering across the place she had called home for one thousand years of her existence. The place hadn’t changed at all. Blinking, she saw her ageless hoofprints in the distant sea of grey. Or perhaps they were just parts of the landscape. Everything looked the same here: Sad and boring.
Forcing herself to smile, she answered the filly next to her. “Welcome to the moon, Copper. Feel free to explore. We are.. I’m going to stay here and watch my sister move the sun… I daresay I’ve already seen everything.”
Copper’s ears folded back across her head at the comment, but then she got up and took a few tentative steps, and lost her balance. Instead of crashing down like she would have on Earth, which hung low in the distance, she slowly fell on her side and came to a comfortable stop in the dust of the surface. Particles of dirt were thrown up upon impact, and they settled around her. Laughing, she clambered up to her hoofs and began to moon-jump around, making hoofprints along the grey landscape.
Luna watched her closely, before turning her gaze to the massive star in the distance, squinting her eyes at the light. A thin rope of gold-tinted magic extended from the planet and attached itself to the sun. The planet, along with the moon, began to drag across space until it had centered itself above where Equestria was. Then, the tentacle withdrew.
Luna began to move the moon to the opposite side of the Earth, so those in nighttime were greeted by the celestial body. The moon rotated and fixated itself above the Changeling hives, which dotted the coast along the southern ocean. Thinking about the chaos that her disappearance would cause, she grinned and decided to enjoy her short break of the work.
Luna turned and looked across the bland surface for Copper Cadence, and her heart leapt in her chest - She couldn’t see her! She bent her powerful legs and jumped high into the air, spinning as she did, so she could see as much as possible. Her probing eyes couldn’t see any sign of a copper coat, so when Luna landed, she began to trot toward the nearest crater she knew about.
She reached the edge of the massive hole and looked into it, searching for any sign of the filly. Luna saw nothing but rock and dust, and a few specks of white down at the bottom. Clenching her teeth, she turned and yelled out Copper’s name. Much to her surprise, she got a response. From right beside her.
“Yes, Princess?” The little earth pony asked. Luna would have jumped ten feet, but they were on the moon, so she jumped about forty. Copper gave an apologetic look to the drifting alicorn and said “I’m sorry” as Luna floated down. When she landed, Copper explained where she had been. “I was over there looking at those big rocks. Looks like we were headed in the same direction.” She told Luna, pointing at a large pile of rubble in the distance, then into the crater.
Luna, shaking away her shock, smiled at the filly. “It’s fine. As long as you’re safe. Don’t stray too far from me, though. My magic can only reach so far, and if you leave the field. you won’t be able to breathe.” Luna looked down at the little specks of white in the crater. Copper, following her gaze, quickly asked her what it was.
“I’m not sure…” She replied. “I haven’t been here for several years, so I may not remember everything.” Luna grinned at Copper and jumped into the crater. “Let’s go look!” she called out behind her. Copper laughed and chased after her.
Luna frowned when they got there. She remembered the place very well, and she could even recognise some of the skeletons that lay around the turf. Copper quickly stopped beside her, and Luna felt her draw slightly closer as she saw the bones of the ponies that had been banished with the Princess of the Night.
“Who are they?” She asked in hushed tones, all amusement gone from her voice.
Luna sighed, not wanting to talk about her old loyalists. “When I was banished one thousand years ago, the ponies that were loyal to me over Celestia went into rebellion and attempted to storm the castle in my name.” Shaking her head, she smiled at Copper. “They ended up being banished too.”
“There were ponies on your side when you refused to lower the moon?” Copper exclaimed in disbelief, “But… Didn’t they see that it was wrong?”
Luna was silent. “You would be surprised at what some ponies can be persuaded into going along with.” She answered. “I didn’t find them until they had all died, but Nightmare Moon probably wouldn’t have helped them at all anyway.” Luna, once again. “If only some of them had more sense than to follow me.”
“Kinda sad they all died alone, out here, on the moon.” Copper said grimly.
“They probably all died within a minute. Only a few of them were unicorns, and none of them knew the spell to create a tiny pocket atmosphere.” Luna turned toward the edge of the crater and began to climb back up. The little filly quickly ran up beside her.
“What’s an atmosphere?” She asked.
Luna glanced at her, keeping back a retort about her ignorance, and reminded herself that the pony was still young. “It’s like a blanket around a planet. On earth, the atmosphere keeps our air together so we can breathe.” she answered.
“So without it, they all died because they couldn’t breathe? That sucks.” Copper said to Luna before running up and jumping over the edge of the crater. Luna sluggishly followed, tired from being up so late in the morning. Eventually, she reached the filly at the top, who sat down with her ears flattened over her head. “This was a sad trip. There’s nothing here but rocks, dust, and bones.” she told Luna, who simply nodded.
“I said don’t be disappointed. There isn’t much here to see. All it is is a rock that I drag around Earth, which Celestia spins and drags around the sun.” Luna told her before sitting on her rump and closing her eyes, ruffling her wings.
Copper gained a curious look. “I thought the sun went around the earth.” she told Luna.
“It looks that way from the surface, but it’s really us going around it. The night-and-day sequence is the planet spinning. Half is always facing the sun, and half is facing away, where the moon is visible. Each year, we go around it once. It’s a whole complicated cycle, and I have to adjust the position of the moon for the phases, and my sister and I sit down sometimes and plan times for eclipses.” Luna explained to the little filly, who sat and stared at her blankly.
“You have a hard job.” She finally said. Luna just laughed.
She stretched and stood up, taking a look around the landscape. “So, are you ready to go home, Copper Cadence?”
Copper nodded. “Yeah. It’s cool that I got to go to the moon, but I found out that it’s really boring. It’s prettier from earth.” She answered Luna’s question. “I guess everything looks different when you understand it better.” She gasped. “Wait, we never went to the stars! Do they revolve around the sun too?” She asked, happy to have remembered. Luna smiled at the filly.
“Perhaps another night, young one. I am very tired. and our hour is nearly over. I am no doubt missed at the castle, just as you are probably missed by two certain parents.” Luna told her. Copper laughed.
“Yeah, you’re right. Tomorrow night, then!” She exclaimed. “I bet they’re even prettier up close!”
Luna shook her head and smiled, before activating her magic. “You’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure.” She told the filly as the milky tendrils reached up and began to wrap themselves around the two ponies. Luna took one last look at the grey landscape and their destination beyond, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, happy to have shared the experience of this tiny world with somepony else.
~-~-~-~-~-~
They reappeared in Luna’s bedchambers, where the Princess of the Night quickly lit the candles and closed the window. “Did you enjoy our trip? I’m glad somepony without a talent in astronomy would be interested.” Luna said to Copper Cadence.
“It was fun.” She replied. “I got to go to another planet! I just wish there was more to it.” Copper went and sat down by the door. “It seemed so great from here, but it turned out to be just another rock.”
Luna smiled and opened the door with her magic. “Most things look better when they are less understood.” She told the little filly. Luna was glad to have helped a young pony like Copper learn such a valuable lesson, and would look forward to the next time she came and visited her.
“Have a good day, Princess!” Copper said happily. Luna nodded, but her eyes flew open when the young earth pony hugged her. Luna smiled, her face hurting from all the exercise, and hugged her back.
“Just call me Luna, Copper Cadence. I hope you have a nice day.” She said as she held Copper in her embrace. Luna hoped that the filly wouldn’t get in trouble for sneaking away from home. Well… that much trouble.
Copper exited the room a moment later, leaving Luna standing in the doorframe. She stood there for several minutes, before she almost began to hear her bed calling for her. She turned into her room and closed the door behind her.
Luna stumbled lazily to her bed, already partially asleep. She crawled up and lied down, before remembering the blankets she could cover herself with. Finally situated in her bed, just like she had been before her little adventure, she closed her eyes and sighed contently. However, she couldn’t sleep.
She tossed and turned in her bed, trying to get comfortable, but nothing would let her fall asleep, until after about two minutes of struggle. She finally lied on her left side, her head underneath her pillow, until she could finally feel the swirling vortex of her nightmares come upon her. She welcomed them happily.
From her bedframe, there came a loud cracking noise, before it rolled to the side with a snap! Luna rolled out and onto the floor with a grunt. In seconds, she was on her hoofs.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”
